Assassination in 3.2.2

Assassination got some pretty significant buffs in 3.2.2 to make sure that it could continue to scale as well as Combat has.  In short, your Envenoms no longer consume your Deadly Poison (when talented via Master Poisoner), and Envenom gets an extra 2% boost from attack power per combo point.  I knew this change was coming since they announced it just after 3.2 hit, and I’ve been trying to acquire Daggers of equal or better quality to my Swords.  As luck would have it, I reached that goal on Thursday and I have been testing Assassination since then.

I think that the best way to summarize the differences between the current Combat and Assassination specs is that Combat has controlled burst, whereas Assassination does not.  There are the three major DPS boosting cooldowns for Combat:  Adrenaline Rush, Blade Flurry, and Killing Spree.  I can blow them all whenever they’re available, or save them for when I need solid burst damage.  Assassination only has 1 true cooldown, Cold Blood, which really isn’t all that great, as most Rogues aren’t hurting for crit chance these days.  Your only other option is to fake another cooldown by using vanish offensively to activate Overkill.

You might assume that I’m not thrilled about Assassination, but that’s a false assumption.  While it lacks in on demand burst damage, Assassination, It makes up for with BIG numbers.  In a collection of 219-232 ilevel gear, I’ve seen Envenom crit for 14k, and that was in a 5 man.  So while I can control the spikes in Combat damage, I’ve no real control over the spikey nature of Assassination’s damage.

I have yet to raid with the 3.2.2 Assassination yet, but from what I’ve seen so far, Assassination seems to be producing more DPS than Combat at the moment.  I went from pulling 3-3.2k unbuffed on a dummy while Combat to 3.2-3.5k unbuffed after I switched back to Assassination.  If my schedule permits it, I’ll be testing this out in earnest this evening in a TOC10. 

Finally

Until yesterday, I’d never seen one of these drop, and I ran Coren on 4 toons daily last year, and as many as 6 every day this year.  In the hundreds of times I’ve killed him before the kodo dropped, I’d seen 1 remote, and 1 ram.  I’m just thankful that I won the roll.  Hopefully my good luck will rub off on any of you that are still trying to get it.

- Sam

3.2.2 Hits; Lag and Updates

Well, it’s official.  As of yesterday, 3.2.2 is the live version of World of Warcraft.  My server came up on time, but no instances were able to launch.  By the time they decided to reset the server to fix the problem, it was time to head out to my in-laws place for the Mrs. birthday, so no Direbrew before raid.  Then there was the rest of the evening…

Gnomestock Recap and Photos

I won’t say a lot in this post, but I had a great time, and for my first in-game event, I was pleased with the success.  I learned what to do, and more importantly what not to do for next year.  That’s right, I’ve got a whole year to think about how to make Gnomestock 2010 even better than its ‘09 counterpart.

Recap:

The Not-so Gnaked Gnome Race was won by Hungtolow.  About three people managed to get to Ironforge at the same time but this gnome in particular was the first to make it to me.  Apparently this particular individual was quite the crafty fellow too, as he technically won the Hide and Seek type event as well.  More on that in a minute

The Happy Fun Rock toss in Ironforge was neat, but we decided to cut it short and get to the zeppelin toss.  A participant sent in a video of the zeppelins rolling into the starting zone that I’ll post later.  That last event would end up being my undoing in the giant sized game of hide and seek I had planned…

I was giving out clues to my location for about 3 minutes into the search when paper zeppelin caught up to me, followed immediately by Hungtolow.  We decided while incredibly genius, we’d let the second arrival take the prize (exactly the same as the prize from the first event).  That gnome would be Filchee, who showed up a few minutes later.

After we took a trip to Theramore for a great pirates vs. ninjas photo we called the event a day by sending the gnomes to all the corners of the game world, a group of 17 stuck together and downed Hogger.  I was already getting ready to run a heroic with some people from the guild, but I lived it vicariously through whispers and vent.

Anyway, if you went, thanks a ton to all who came.  I have to admit that the whole thing was getting me nervous, and I breathed a sigh of relief when it was over and the screenshots came pouring in.  If you’ve never hosted an event like this, you’ve really no idea how much prep it takes behind the scenes / ability to adapt on the fly.  As a way of thanking you, I’d like to allow anyone who’s interested to join our ranks to level your gnome.  Shenanigans like Gnomestock are pretty normal around here, so expect more of the same.

And now for the photos…

Thanks Everyone!

I hope everyone else had as good a time at Gnomestock as the member of Bucklers did.  I’ll have a full write up tomorrow with more pics, and talk about the individual events.  So, thanks to everyone who came, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as cool with out each and every one of you.

- Sam

And They’re Off!!!

Under 10 MinutesLeft – Final Information

-  Race: Final Info  -

The course for our Not So Gnaked Gnome Race will take you in any way you choose to Loch Modan, and the Thelsamar flight path.  From there you’ll fly to Ironforge and make your way to the Rogue trainer to find me.  This flight will cost you 1 silver and 4 copper.  Once the race starts you can make the money in anyway you’d like, but you can’t vendor your tabard or shirt.  The first player to place these items in a trade window with me in Ironforge will win the event.  The other members of Bucklers of Swash will be monitoring the race to catch anyone who tries to enter Ironforge through the gates.

Once the race is won, an announcement will be made and we’ll give players some time to assemble around the outer circle of Ironforge for the next event.

Good Luck to you,

- Sam

Gnomestock In 30…

Preparations Are Almost Complete

It’s almost that time.  Less that 24 hours before Gnomestock ‘09

I’ve spent the last hour inviting anyone who logged on a day early to go ahead and join the event guild.  I’ve got enough cloth and shirts to cover several 40 man raids, and we’ll be buying the tabards as needed tomorrow.  It was really cool to chat with fellow blogger Repgrind for a short time this evening, and it seemed she was equally happy to meet Revix, a fellow Bucklers of Swash blogger.

Here’s the finalized information (minus the specifics of the race)

Not So Gnaked Gnome Race

You must be level 1 at the start of the event.  Prior to the race, you will receive a tabard, shirt and an invite to one of the raid groups.  The specifics of the “twist” to this race and the route will be announced in game and on this website 10 minutes prior to the start of Gnomestock.  Your final destination will be Ironforge, but a straight path there isn’t what I have in mind.  I’ll have some people stationed to make sure that it’s no one elses’ either.  Upon your arrival in Ironforge, seek out the Rogue Trainer.  I’ll be standing in front of the building.  The first person to make it to me and follow the instructions (again…wait until tomorrow) will win the event.

The winner of the event will receive both a Slashdance loot card and some fun items for your event character (don’t ask me, it was The Mrs. Idea).

Happy Fun Times in Ironforge

When I asked for suggestions for an innovative in game event, someone suggested a long chain of players tossing a Happy Fun Rock around.  Well, we’re going to take that idea and run with it.  A chain of Gnomes around the outer circle of Ironforge tossing many Happy Fun Rocks around.  Admittedly, it’s an event that no one can win, but the screenshots should be great fun.

Gnomish Restart – The Great Paper Zeppelin Chase

The Gnomes are going to head back to the starting zone for the final event, and to get there, we’re going to have people run back to the starting zone with a Paper Zeppelin chasing you the whole time.  Again, not an event you can win, but hysterical, fun and very screenshot worthy at the same time.  Basically, members of Bucklers will throw the Zeppelins at you , and you’ll run in a a circle and throw it back to them.  Then you’ll take off for the starting zone, and as long as the Zeppelin doesn’t catch you, it should follow you all the way there (even though you threw it back).  Our resident Pro Zeppelin chaser, Stalkuren, will show you the ropes before we go.  Btw, If you haven’t tried this inside the Argent Coliseum or the Observation Ring in Ulduar, you’re missing out.

Where in Dun Murogh is Samueltempus?

After everyone’s Safely back in the starting zone, I’m going to go off the radar, and hide somewhere in Dun Morogh.  I’ll be stealthed, and it will not be easy, but the first person to find me wins.  I realize that with size of the zone and the level gap, you’d have to be right on top of me to find me, so every few minutes, a hint will be distributed through the raid leaders as to my position (which they won’t know either).  The winner of this event will get the same prize pack as the winner of the Race (The Slashdance loot card, and whatever it is that the Mrs. decides on)

The Photo Op

We’ll be porting all of the gnomes to a “location” and distributing Savory Deviate Delights in honor of Pirate’s Day.  We’ll take a few huge Pirates vs. Ninjas screenshots, and then it’s time for the closing event, a Bucklers of Swash tradition known as:

The Portal Game

We’ll have a mage drop portals to the major cities on top of each other.  Where you’ll go, no one knows, but I can’t think of a better way to end Gnomestock than to send everyone off to get lost somewhere random.  I can’t wait to see the screenshots people can come up with.  I’ll be posting a few lost gnome pics a few days after the event.

And, there you have it, that’s Gnomestock in a nutshell.  Send all of your screenshots to samueltempus@aol.com, and I promise some great followup content about the event.  I hope to see everyone tomorrow.

- Sam

Less Than 36 Hours to Go

Well, I guess the word got out.  As excited as I was for the publicity, part of me is thinking, please don’t crash the server.  I like being able to play, and getting banned doesn’t sound like fun.  Hopefully that won’t be an issue…

Anyway, the Guild got formed, the tabard is made, and the three types of linen shirts are in the production process.  Everyone online last night was super stoked about the wow.com publicity, and some ideas were tossed out.  Boy, the people in Bucklers sure know how to run with something. I logged on this morning to check my in game mail and set a meeting time for my guild to get the final prep done for Gnomestock and get this message from Revix:

“Hey Sam, We got 200 Deviate Fish” 

I suppose it is Pirate’s Day tomorrow. 

I’ll be posting up some final information this evening about the individual events for Gnomestock, with the exception of the race “course” that players will have to take for the first event.  If you want to go ahead and get yourself guilded up in the guild Gnomestock, I’ll be on my mage, Cristobel, tonight at 6 server (7 EDT) for a good hour or so.  I’ll be happy to take care of some of that this evening.

Speaking of my mage, I’d like to give a quick shout out to Euripedes, whose blog helped me level her up quickly.  I recently crossed the 2k spellpower barrier, and am no longer frost (which I miss the playstyle of desperately!), but I can’t complain about the raw numbers I’m achieving with Arcane.

- Sam